What initially Anji thought was odd started to feel normal as they walked from the outer court to the inner court of Noble Consort Liu’s main palace. They said that the main palace’s vibes reflected its owner, and Noble Consort Liu had a vibe of an eccentric personality.

Sensing their uneasy gazes behind him, the old, experienced eunuch smiled.

"Our Noble Consort is a curious lady of many interests. These are some of the items sent by foreign envoys that caught her interest. Because the Emperor and Empress favour her so much, they gifted her with too many things, and they ended up overflowing from the storage into the garden and inner court grounds. Please pardon the clutter."

For some reason, the sight felt familiar to Anji. It was as if Noble Consort Liu were secretly a member of the Mystical Qilin Sect. Her collection of oddities looked exactly like Mingshen’s headquarters workshop and every researcher’s laboratory. In fact, if they ignored the rarity of these items, it was exactly how Zhao Yihao’s childhood bedroom used to look daily. It gave their family servants a constant headache. No matter how much their mother nagged at him, Zhao Yihao’s tidied room would return to its original state of chaos the very next day for some reason. It was so bizarre that the phenomenon was categorised as one of the Celestial Dragon Sect’s unofficial Seven Mysteries.

Passing the inner court to finally reach the side garden, the number of random large knick-knacks started to shift into something more thematic and less cluttered. The items displayed here had more classification and looked like they were part of an elaborate art piece instead.

"Is that a hand crank for tea leaves?" Anji squinted at the tiny device sitting on a carved rock sculpture. The familiarity of something the researchers frequently used surprised her.

Her comment took the eunuch by surprise.

"Oh? Young lady, do you know what it is? We have been trying to document all these oddities and their functions, but have never found any related to the ones displayed outside. Is this a tea leaf grinder?"

Anji could not confirm it from here. However, it looked very similar. The old eunuch’s eyes glinted with hope, but hastened the entourage along. These guests were staying for a while. He would have plenty of time to catch the knowledgeable young lady later.

The guest reception hall was huge. Yihao’s jaw fell as he craned his neck all the way up to look at the statue made in pure gold displayed at the very back of the guest hall that stood at least six men tall. It was the statue of Liu Guiya herself that caught their attention. If they did not know the Noble Consort’s true personality, they might have thought she was narcissistic.

"This is the statue gifted to Noble Consort Liu by the King of Pyu when he visited as a prince. Her beauty caught his eye, and he had a sculpture of her made from gold as a gift when he revisited the imperial palace as a sign of goodwill between our countries," the eunuch explained proudly.

The King of Pyu might be a ruler of a small country, but it was a land rich in gold. Even so, to create such a grand sculpture of a lady whom he had only seen once, it spoke of a great obsession. Anji wondered if Noble Consort Liu’s reputation was inflated by her royal patrons or something borne from her true influence. Perhaps it was both. Liu Guiya used to be the leader of the Heavenly Phoenix Sect and is a sworn sister of Hong Nian Niang. They were very powerful ladies with similar personalities. The only difference is how Hong Nian Niang preferred a covert approach while Liu Guiya often flaunted her methods openly.

Most people would mistake the Vermillion Bird and the Phoenix for being the same. However, they could not be more different. Although they were both ancient mythical creatures, they had different duties.

Like the Noble Consort, the Phoenix is a symbol of prosperity and hope. It dies and comes back again, burning brighter than before. Anji had no idea why the Heavenly Phoenix Sect was on a decline, but she had faith it would return better than ever in the future. It’s the constant cycle of rebirth in a phoenix that makes it resilient.

On the other hand, the Vermillion Bird was a guardian of the South. Hong Nian Niang’s Red Palace was built in the south because of that. Together with the White Tiger, Azure Dragon and Black Tortoise, the Vermillion Bird guards the centre and provides balance. The imperial palace in Chang’an was also built with this concept. It was rumoured that the Emperor was the guardian of a dragon’s scale sealed away in a secret place that only the rulers knew about.

The four gates facing the four directions were a huge clue to how the capital city’s formation might be designed. Entering the palace was to confirm whether the demonic cult had created ley lines that were tampering with the formation. Nobody knew if the dragon scale was real. However, Anji knew the formation was true. After all, when she fought Song Min as Zhong Kui before falling into the cycle of repeated reincarnation.

There was no doubt that Song Min’s grudge against the imperial palace remained strong. His sense of righteousness became a twisted justice, desiring revenge against corrupt officials, even if the ruler and dynasty had changed. Lost in the past, Song Min would probably stop at nothing to get his revenge, and it was up to Anji to prevent that tragedy. The brainwashing hairpins were probes to help Song Min locate something within the palace. Unfortunately, not even Anji knew where it was. If she had to make an intellectual guess, he might be searching for the dragon scale rumoured to be guarded by the Emperor.

After all, those nightmares about doomsday that the Emperor suffered from were not a coincidence. Anji checked the constellations last night while tracking the flow of energy from the Red Palace Watch Tower last night. The Emperor’s star was clouded by a milky way trail, indicating it was a man-made disaster and not his true fate.

Someone had placed a curse on the Emperor in the palace, and Anji was here to investigate everything. Including the tea leaf grinder and thousands of knick-knacks outside the Noble Consort’s main palace. This would take a while.